


An Old Oak Door

by psychosomatic86



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angels that don't (but do) exist, F/M, I'm pretty sure this one's a tear jerker, M/M, Massive amounts of Fluff!, love!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 07:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2182515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychosomatic86/pseuds/psychosomatic86
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Peters would tell this story for many years to come. Tears would always come to his eyes as he remembered Cecil and Carlos’s embrace, and he would always end with the same sentiment.</p>
<p>“I guess angels do exist.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Old Oak Door

Cecil made a face, took the picture, and laughed at his ridiculous expression. He sent it, and seconds later, he received one back from Carlos, his face contorted in all sorts of impossible ways. Cecil laughed so hard, he fell off of his bed. He texted this information to Carlos who replied with a “ROFL!!”.

Though it was still hard not having Carlos with him, they had gotten along fine the past few months with snapchats, calls, texts, and, of course, private fun times over the phone.

Cecil’s hysterics calmed as he snuggled back under his blankets. Though it was always day in that other worldly desert, and Carlos never seemed to need sleep, Cecil did need his beauty rest. It was already past midnight and his eyes were beginning to droop.

He smiled sleepily as he wrote Carlos: “Gonna sleep now, babe, luv u <3 <3<3”

His phone buzzed just as he was slipping off: “Luv u 2! Pretend I’m holding u while u sleep <3”

Cecil smiled again as his eyes closed.

***

Cecil awoke that morning to find a strange text from Carlos: “DID U FIND IT?” Cecil was still bleary eyed from sleep and thought he was reading it wrong, but he wasn’t. He texted back: “Find what?”

He sat up stretching, waiting for his phone to buzz. He picked it up when he heard the vibrating, but the text was even weirder than the first: “I FOUND AN…” and where there should have been words, there were just red X’s. Cecil texted back: “Still dont get it, call me”

He sat up, stretching while he waited for his phone to ring.

“Hey, what’s up?” He said, upon picking up.

“Cecil! Oh my goodness, you won’t believe this!” Carlos sounded breathless and extremely excited. “I found one of those old oak doors!”

“What?” Cecil was fully awake now.

“It wasn’t here yesterday, or I don’t even know if yesterday was, time is weird here…”

“Carlos!” Cecil was anxious and didn’t want him going off on one of his tangents.”

“Sorry! You know how I am. Anyway, I tried to open it but it’s locked. It’s one sided, like, it’s visible from one side, but not the other.”

“So you think the other side might be here in Night Vale!” Cecil was very excited.

“I don’t know, but I should think so. Night Vale and this desert seem to be the only places these doors appear!”

“So what do we do?” Cecil was breathless, he couldn’t wait to hold Carlos in his arms again.

“I’m not sure, but the best thing for you to do is ask around on your show if anyone has seen any old oak doors that weren’t there before.”

“Oh, Carlos! This is so wonderful!” Cecil gushed.

“I know,” Carlos’s voice was honey. “I just can’t wait to kiss you again!”

Cecil blushed, though there was no one to see it.

“I’ve got to go now, gotta get things ready for my show.”

“I know.” Carlos’s voice held the tiniest hint of sadness, like it always did when they said goodbye.

“Call me when you get more information on that door!” Cecil was giddy.

“I will, and you do the same, I love you so much!”

“I love you, too.”

There were a few more “I love you’s” before they hung up.

***

Cecil did as Carlos had instructed, he asked around about the door, but no one had seen anything. He was disappointed about this but kept his hopes high. There had been no change in Carlos’s being trapped in that desert and now one of the doors had appeared!

Everyone was very happy for him and told him to keep his spirits high.

“But really,” they said with a grave look, “you have _at least_ been giving your ghosts alcohol, right?”

Cecil nodded, he hated when people used that expression because they always had to make sure you were keeping your ghosts sedated. The City Council couldn’t risk another uprising.

As the day wore on, Cecil received no information from Carlos which dampened his hopes just a little. But he was able to distract himself in his show.

He relayed information about new laws, old laws, deleted laws, doubled laws, traffic, sport’s events, etc. And he kept telling his beloved listeners to keep and eye out for an old oak door “that is there on one side but not there on the other.”

***

“And now, dear listeners, I give you… the weather.”

A jaunty tune began to play, and he leaned back in his chair. He looked at his phone, still nothing from Carlos. He sighed and put it back in his pocket.

Suddenly, John Peters, you know the farmer, burst into the studio, intern Phyllis hot on his heels.

“I’m sorry!” She gasped, winded from trying to restrain John. “He barged in and wouldn’t listen to me!”

John’s face was excited and brimming with the look of important news.

“I found it, Cecil! I found the door!”

Cecil stood quickly from his chair, his heart racing. “Where!” His excitement was hardly containable.

“Well,” John began in his slow speech. “I was out in my fields, admiring my crop of imaginary corn, it’s going to be a good one this year, make sure you tell your listeners.”

“John!”

“Sorry! So, I was looking at the corn, and as I turned to look away, something caught my eye. I turned back and it’s gone, but as I start to look away, it came back.” He was holding up his hands in a questioning gesture.

Cecil didn’t interrupt, waiting for him to spill the news. John continued.

“So looking at that angle, I start walking toward whatever it is. And it was the door, Cecil! There on one side, not there on the other, that’s why it kept disappearing on me!” He smiled proudly as though he’s just delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Cecil almost collapsed from happiness. He wished he could tell Carlos the news but his phone always did something weird if he tried to contact first. He would have to wait for Carlos to call or text him.

“Thank you, John!” Cecil said, hugging him.

John was taken aback and patted Cecil’s back awkwardly.

“Can you wait out in the break room, while I finish the show? Then you can take me to the door.”

John nodded, and walked out, an agitated Phyllis following close, making sure he didn’t cause anymore interruptions.

Cecil sat back down just as the weather ended.

“Listeners, do I have news for you!”

He told them about the door, sounding happier than a kid who hadn’t gotten a Valentine, and then he closed the show. He didn’t want to waste anymore time in getting to the door.

“Goodnight, Night Vale, goodnight.”

People would later say this was his best outro, and that they would never forget it.

***

He drove in excited silence to John’s fields. He was right, a good crop of imaginary corn was coming in.

Cecil was out of his car before he had even put it in park. He followed John through the corn who pointed out at the desert.

“D’you see it?”

Cecil squinted, the setting sun was still very bright. He scanned the area John’s finger seemed to be motioning to and he saw it! It was there if you looked at just the right angle and gone if you moved the wrong way.

“Yes!”

“Alright,” said John, “I’ll leave you too it.” And he turned back.

Cecil broke into a run towards the door. He was breathing heavily by the time he got there but smiling all the same. The door was just as Carlos and John had described, old oak there on one side, and gone on the other. He place his hand on the brass knob.

His phone rang suddenly, startling him. He pulled it out, it was Carlos!

“Carlos, I found it!”

“Oh, Cecil!” His voice mirthful.

“I had to leave the door for a moment, but I’m making my way back. Maybe we can talk to each other through it!”

“Oh, Carlos!” Cecil was near tears at the prospect of getting his boyfriend back.

“OW!”

“What happened!” Cecil was alarmed.

“My phone is burning, OW! I’ll call you back when it cools down, OW! I’ll be at the door soon, just stay there! I love you!”

“I love you too!” But the call had ended before he finished.

***

Cecil sat with his back against the door, waiting for Carlos, as the sun dipped toward the flat horizon. The crimsons and auburns swirled with mauve and deepening purples as the sun sank lower. Still nothing from Carlos.

He sighed.

“Cecil?”

He jumped.

“Carlos?!”

He pressed his ear to the door.

“Cecil! I’m here I can hear you!”

“Oh, Carlos!” Cecil wept. He placed his hand on the door. Carlos did the same, and they could feel each other even through the thick wood.

“My lovely, perfectly imperfect Carlos!”

Carlos laughed and Cecil could hear he was crying.

“Cecil, I love you so much.”

The tears were coming fast from Cecil’s eyes, but they were of joy not sadness.

“Carlos, there is no one and nothing I love more than you.”

The two stayed like that, foreheads bowed on the door, hands staying in the same spot so as not to break the connection.

***

Cecil soon felt cold creeping up and realized the sun was gone. The sky was now black void with silver twinkles of stars and spy satellites.

“Carlos.” he whispered

“Yes?”

“How do I get you back?”

There was a pause, neither of them wanted to acknowledge the truth, but they had to face it.

“I don’t know, my love, I just… don’t know.”

Their hearts sank a little as the words floated with permanence in the air between the doors.

They were quiet for a few moments, then Carlos broke the silence

“Cecil.” Carlos’s voice was quiet. “It’s very strange, I’m not sure why I didn’t mention this before, but… it’s night here and I’m feeling... tired.”

Cecil didn’t say anything and Carlos continued.

“I haven’t needed sleep, or food, or water this whole time, but I feel so tired now. Do you mind if I just rest a bit?”

“Of course not, just stay by the door, please?”

“Of course…” But Carlos’s voice was already dreamy.

Cecil listened to his quiet breathing for a while until he, too, fell asleep, his back against the door.

***

“Awake…”

Cecil stirred at the musical voice. A hand softer than air touched his cheek, and he slowly opened his eyes. He had to close them again, for a blinding white light was shining directly into them.

“Look at me.”

He opened his eyes again, squinting at the light. A tall being, with large, graceful wings, stood before him, emanating beauty and power.

“NO!” Cecil closed his eyes again, this figure did not exist, it was NOT there!

“Look at me!” The voice was gentle but powerful, quiet yet demanding, beautiful but terrible.

“NO!” Cecil cried again. “You don’t exist!”

The tears came almost immediately. Cecil doubled over as the sobbing racked his body.

“You aren’t real! You aren’t, you aren’t, you aren’t…” The words were fading from fact to plea.

He felt a hand rest on his back. Again, “Look at me.”

Cecil, shook his head, still sobbing. He tried to stop himself, but his head lifted, and he was looking into diamond clear eyes. The hand reached up and wiped the tears from his cheeks.

“I am Erika.”

“Erica.” Cecil repeated, transfixed.

“No,” the lovely voice said gently, “Erika, with a K.”

“Erika.” Cecil corrected himself.

The angel smiled.

“I have come for you, you have been chosen for a higher purpose.”

Cecil broke the trance, “NO! You’re not real, you can’t take me, you can’t take me from my Carlos!”

Erika smiled softly.

“He cannot return, he does not belong to Night Vale.”

Cecil felt his heart shatter. “You can’t do this! You can’t have me! I’ll stay by this door my whole life if it means I’ll be close to Carlos! YOU DON’T EXIST!”

“But, my child…”

Cecil broke in, “NO, PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS!”

The sobs returned and the angel waited silently for Cecil to calm before she continued.

“You do not let me finish. He may not belong to Night Vale, but that does not mean he does not belong to you and you to him.”

Cecil looked up, the soothing words echoing in his head.

“What?”

“Just as you have been chosen for a higher purpose, so has he. Erika is talking to him right now.”

Cecil turned to look at the door, and sure enough, he could see holy, angelic light spilling underneath onto the desert floor.

He turned back to Erika who was smiling, teeth whiter than pearls but still visible against her alabaster skin. She held out her hand, and Cecil took it. They stood and Erika placed her hand on the brass knob.

She turned the knob.

Light spilled out but Cecil no longer had to squint or shield his eyes. There stood the angel, Erika, and next to him, another…

“Carlos!”

“Oh, Cecil!”

They pulled each other into a passionate embrace.

“Carlos, my love, you are so beautiful!”

Carlos was radiating black light, his majestic wings spread wide and proud, his hair and smile were  _so_  perfect.

“Cecil, we are.. angels.”

And Cecil looked down at himself. He too, was radiating light, though he was white. He reached behind himself and caressed his silken wings.

The two looked at each other’s eyes, Cecil’s diamond and Carlos’s onyx. Their lips met, a kiss softer than either of them had ever experienced.

The two Erika’s stood together, holding each other, remembering how they had experienced the same.

They then placed a hand on each of the new angel’s shoulders. “It is time.”

They ascended to the heavens, three white beings one black, a beacon of love and power in the cold desert night.

***

John Peters would tell this story for many years to come. Tears would always come to his eyes as he remembered Cecil and Carlos’s embrace, and he would always end with the same sentiment.

“I guess angels do exist.”

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
